Masala Chai Tea Mix
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This recipe for Vegan Masala Chai features bold black tea and seven aromatic spices for a robust chai experience.
Ingredients
  • 50g or about 9-10 Tablespoons black tea leaves, preferably a strong, CTC-style tea (see notes below)
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 10 green cardamom pods, seeds only
  • 3 whole cloves
  • 20 black peppercorns
  • 1½ teaspoons fennel seeds
  • ½ of a whole nutmeg
Instructions
  1. Put the black tea into a container with an airtight lid.
  2. Using a mortar and pestle, first pound the cinnamon sticks into little chips that are small enough to fit on a small spoon (You'll want them to be small so you get a consistent amount of cinnamon each time you spoon some mix out to make chai). Add them to the black tea.
  3. Put the cardamom seeds, cloves, peppercorns, fennel seeds, and nutmeg into the mortar and pound them gently. You want to break them up and release the aromatic oils, but you don't need to turn them into powder. Once pounded, put these into the tea container.
  4. Shake the tea with the spices until well combined and seal the lid. You're now ready to make chai!
Notes
-I mentioned that CTC-style black tea is best here. CTC or "crush-tear-curl" is a method of processing tea that creates tiny little granules. A machine crushes the leaves to facilitate oxidization, then tears the leaves into little bits, finally a roller curls the tea into the minuscule pellets. This is the most common way to process tea in India and it is well-suited for chai making because it yields a bold taste and excellent color extraction. You'll find CTC black tea in any Indian market. Alternatively, you can use an orthodox, full-leaf tea for making chai but the color and tea flavor may be a bit muted. If you make this masala tea mix with full-leaf or broken-leaf black tea, I would add another teaspoon of this mix when making a chai beverage.

-If you don't have a mortar and pestle, use a heavy-bottomed pot or a cast-iron skillet to crush the spices on a cutting board.

-Of course you'll use this mix to make a hot chai beverage, but you can also use it to make a multitude of desserts. Chai-flavored ice cream, panna cotta, and rice pudding are a few examples. Just boil and steep whatever nondairy milk you use in that recipe with this chai mix and proceed with that recipe.

-You can substitute rooibos tea for the black tea if you want a caffeine-free chai experience.
Recipe by Lands & Flavors at https://www.landsandflavors.com/vegan-masala-chai/